


Lost In The Tower

by ElenCelebrindal



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Red & Green & Blue & Yellow | Pokemon Red Green Blue Yellow Versions
Genre: Attempted Murder, Emotional Hurt, Fear, Kidnapping, M/M, MILD - Freeform, Psychological Horror, Red can talk but only does so with Green, Selectively Mute Red, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 18:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20030590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenCelebrindal/pseuds/ElenCelebrindal
Summary: Screams coming from the deepest pit of his memory, anguished cries making their way into his mind from outside, ripping at his mind and ears as he finally moved and covered them with his hands. It was painful, distressing, so inconceivably wicked.And then it changed.He was surrounded by corpses. A wilted Venusaur with brown leaves and a dead flower on his back, a twisted Blastoise whose cannons had been tore away from his shell, a pale Charizard without any flames on his body, his tail limp and shut down.It wasn’t real, they were alive...It wasn’t real!«IT’S NOT REAL!».Green fell again, a hand clutching his chest as stabbing pain shot through it, his head hitting the ground. Pictures flew over his mind, playing like an old movie, static and feverishly fast, dark and bright, spiraling around him and laying down at his feet.He wanted to call for help, but he was fading away.Hid body was withering, turning to dust, melting and changing, as the pain on his heart only grew worse and worse until he passed out.





	Lost In The Tower

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! [I'm Flowey]
> 
> First Pokemon fanfiction I've ever written, and it was about damn time I contributed to this fandom. I joined it years ago, and now I remember I can do something about it.   
I've always wanted to write something about Red and Green (yeah, I don't like calling him Blue, it's just ridiculous), but my mind is not the happiest of places so this came out.  
So, this is my take on Namelessshipping or Originshipping or whatever you call this ship, I never understood. Red/Green and we're done. 
> 
> Unfortunately not beta'd. And a little disclaimer, English is not my first language, so sorry if there's mistakes I've overlooked while revising it.

People came to the gym and went away defeated, young trainers still hyped after fighting Green and older ones disappointed after failing once again against the Gym Leader who should have really been part of the Elite 4.   
Red came by to say hi before heading out to train, leaving soon after giving his husband a brief kiss that made Blue roll her eyes at the sappiness of that routine.   
The weather had been so dull and boring, with a barely visible sun despite being still hot outside, even those few wild Pokemons running around in the city didn’t do much if not laying around lazily.

All in all, that had been an incredibly normal and uneventful day.

Until it wasn’t.

Green was about to close down the gym for the day – all the other trainers plus his sister left thirty minutes before – when he heard a blunt _tud_ coming from behind the locked back door. He was right about to unlock it to get out before locking it back up, but something made him back away. _That _certainly wasn’t a knocking sound, he knew better than to open the door.   
He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand upright, tension enveloping him as he went over every possibility he could think of. Maybe some crazy fan who wanted to get a hold of him? It wouldn’t have been the first time, anyways – a girl once stalked him for an entire week and even put her hands on his freaking _underwear_ while he was at the beach. Luckily for him, and surely unluckily for her, they were only a spare pair and not something he actually wore before changing into swimming trunks.   
So yeah, possibility number one.

The second hypothesis revolved around press. Green had seen his fair share of oppressive journalists, especially in his first year as Gym Leader of Viridian City, and more than one actively tried to kick down the door of his apartment before Green resolved to move. The house he now shared with Red was in a quiet district of the city, and maybe Blue had something to do with the press because no one bothered them at home. Green never pried an answer from her, but he was one hundred percent sure she threatened every single journalist she could get her voice on. Maybe with one of her Pokemon. Or her fists. Whatever.

The third possibility that made its way into Green’s mind was far less innocent and safe. Sure, journalists knew how to get on his nerves – hell, he almost punched one in the face for being too inquisitive of his private life – and obsessed fans were a handful, but they weren’t dangerous. Not in the immediate, at least.   
But there was a chance, a slight and maybe unbelievable one, that Team Rocket was banging on his door. And no, not those idiots that followed young trainers around to steal their Pokemon, Green had met them and knew immediately they were just stealing the name.

Team Rocket, as far as few people knew at the present day, was a highly dangerous organization lead by clever minds and shady people. They didn’t rely _just _on Pokemon to get their voice to be heard. Guns and knives were a lot better way, most of the times.   
Some people, like Silver, personally knew what was like to be constantly tailed by Team Rocket. The poor man – even though no one would even dare calling him that in person – got beaten up more than once, ended up in a hospital more often than not as he was frequently targeted.   
Green, on the other hand, had never been on their hit list. Sure, he was Red’s husband, and Red disbanded them on his own while he was still a kid, but…  
Oh, wait.

It was a little bit late for revenge, wasn’t it? It could easily just be some really insistent courier bringing in another load of badges – and by that Green meant another small box because his gym didn’t have that many trainers a day – but if that was the case, they had to be mad.   
Unsure and suspicious, Green made up his mind a second too late. As soon as he reached for Blastoise’s Pokeball, sitting in the jacket hung up near the door, the latter bursted open with a loud crash and forced Green to walk backwards, hands raised to protect his face from wood splinters, and staggering. A handful of seconds later, too few for the man to actively react or just call his Eevee, Green felt sharp and shocking pain all over his body, and he doubled over on the floor as every single muscle went limp and weak.

A taser.  
And a pretty high setting too, if he was already unable to move and twitching on the ground.   
Not that he’d been tased before, but Green remembered the one time Silver had told them – he and Red – about another attempt at discovering old vaults and hideouts from Team Rocket members. The sensation was spot on, really. Maybe a little bit worse that he’d imagined.   
But then again, the look on the face of the man who glanced at him was the worst of it all. It was twisted, warped in a sick smile hovering above his body, a face paler than snow framed by greasy aqua hair. The only thing Green could make out of that man was his rank as a general, since he wasn’t wearing the even more ridiculous uniform of the team members, but nothing more than that.   
He might have recalled Silver telling him about a very similar man some time before, but his mind was too clouded with stunning pain to remember it. The name was escaping him, the role of that man was escaping him, and when he hit him on the head with the grip of a gun reality escaped too.

^^^

When Red came back home, late in the evening, something immediately seemed off. He didn’t stop at the gym, knowing Green would already be home and probably waiting for him to have dinner, but the house was quiet. Too quiet for his liking.   
Eevee wasn’t scampering around like always, not sleeping on the Pokemon tree she had in the corner of the room. Most noticeably of all, there was no smell in the air, and Red frowned. The living room was usually flooded with delicious smells coming from the kitchen, as Green enjoyed to cook for them both, or from takeout boxes on the coffee table, but there was nothing.

Red let Pikachu out of his Pokeball and let the creature take a whiff for himself, just to be sure. Pikachu just looked back at him with a puzzled expression shaping his face, and tilted his head with the slightest “Pika?” he could muster. The champion looked around, shrugging, but couldn’t drive away the sudden feeling of uneasiness that got him by the reins.   
Green would have called him, or texted him, in case he wasn’t going to be home. Hell, he would have left a note right by the coat hanger, where Red was surely going to see it.   
Just to be sure he was not overthinking it, Red pulled out both his cellphone and Pokegear and scrolled through inbox, texts and calls. No missed calls from Green – there was one videocall from Lance but he didn’t want to deal with how bad the man was at reading sign language – and no unread texts.

Weird.

He was about to turn both devices off and pocket them when a notification popped up on his phone, coming from the local news site. Green had literally forced Red to download it, insisting on how he needed to keep updated, and Red had begrudgingly agreed. Although, he never checked it out and mostly read those brief summaries coming up every now and then.   
This time, however, as soon as he _glanced_ at the headline he pressed it and was redirected to the digital news blog.

_ _

_ Incident at Viridian City’s Pokemon Gym.  _

_Late this day, a citizen of Viridian City contacted the police about a sudden and loud clash that happened in the Pokemon Gym of the city. Upon arriving, the police took notice of a busted door in the back of the building, completely torn away from its hinges. The Gym Leader, the well-known ex-champion and honorary Elite 4 member Green, was nowhere in sight, even if following investigations found all his Pokemon still in the building. _

At that, Red stopped reading, panic torrenting over him, drenching him in anguish and stinging worry.   
_Green was nowhere in sight_. _His Pokemon still in the building_.  
“Pika…?”. Pikachu tilted his head questioningly, still sniffing around and trying to find Eevee’s scent lingering in the air, and squeaked out when Red abruptly snatched him off the ground and ran out, hat forgotten on the hanger and face ashen in fear.

He bolted through Viridian’s streets, not even bothering to call out Charizard, too unnerved to think about it. The flying Pokemon could have carried him to the gym in a matter of minutes, but Red couldn’t think clearly. Green was in danger, what the hell was he supposed to do in that situation?!  
Green was the one able to get through those kind of situations, not him! Green saved him from freezing to death, one night he’d gotten lost on Mt. Silver, not the other way around! Red didn’t know how to handle Green being threatened!

So he just ran and ran, until the gym finally came into his view, Red’s lungs burning with fatigue with every breath he inhaled. They were filled with fire, not air, but when he got around the building and saw the damage, fire left in favor of ice cold horror.   
The area around the back entrance of the gym had been closed off with police tape and barriers, and there were still officers scouting around the place. Red tried to find a familiar face amongst them, and waved frantically at Blue as soon as he spotted her.

«Red! Oh dear Arceus, I was trying to call you! Why didn’t you pick up?».  
Blue swatted off an officer and stomped in Red’s direction, holding her phone up for him to see. His apologizing look, though, made her remember Red didn’t like to talk. She didn’t think about it, neck deep in dread while composing the number only she and Green had.   
«No one let you know?».

He shook his head, whilst trying to keep Pikachu in place. The little critter was squirming on his shoulder, and managed to wriggle away just before Red could call him into the Pokeball.   
The Pokemon was as worried as his trainer, after all, but Red was still stuck talking with Blue, so he couldn’t follow him into the building.   
_«I read it online and rushed here»_, he signed, so fast Blue’s eyes barely kept up with his movements. _«What about you?»._

Blue sighed, shaking her head: «I just came here, an officer was updating me on the situation. Apparently, Green disappeared and all his Pokemon are here. Blastoise’s Pokeball was in his jacket and the others scattered around. He also told me Eevee had been put on a leash and tied up. I don’t-_Red!_ Where are you going?!».

Deaf to her calls, Red made it past the barriers and strode into the gym, ignoring an officer’s voice yelling behind his back. He hated how slow the police was, how uncaring a lot of officers were on the work. He wasn’t going to wait around for something to show up on its own, Green needed help, and he needed it fast.  
Upon entering, breaking off the tape like the minor inconvenience it was, he didn’t find any signs of scuffle. Nothing was broken, aside from the shattered door, and there was no blood in sight in the near vicinity. That made Red give a sigh of relief, even if momentary. Whoever kidnapped him, they had to have knocked him out somehow. Green wasn’t the type who refused to fight, he was pretty good at defending himself.  
Red had known on his own skin, when Green punched him straight in the face, back on Mt. Silver. The memory still hurt.

It was back when Red still didn’t want anything to do with social interactions and a reasonably normal life. A couple months after Green’s first climb on Mt. Silver.   
The had a huge fight, Green was absurdly upset at Red’s unwillingness to coming down the damn mountain, despite freezing cold and constant death threat posed by wild Pokemon and unstable weather, and he yelled at him for quite some time.   
Until, well… Red had stupidly told him to “shut up and go the fuck away if you care so little”.   
The fist connected to his face to suddenly, Red fell back on hard snow and didn’t even feel the pain settle in as soon as the blow landed.   
He saved him long after, patient about it. He brought him down, and gave him a new life.   
Red didn’t know if he could understand what to do, instead.

Green’s Pokemon, six Pokeball neatly placed on a table, caught his attention and reminded him of Eevee. Blue said the Pokemon was tied up, so there had to be more than one person involved, and they had strong Pokemons. Eevee seemed a cute little pet, but could be very vicious if she wanted to. Getting her to stay put was a challenge and a half, and the creature sure wasn’t willing to surrender without putting up quite the fight.   
And speaking of Eevee, Red heard a mewling sound to his left and suddenly found his arms full of brown fur, and a bundle of yellow climbed up his shoulder. The Pokemon was okay, even if she was shuddering a bit, but was clearly distressed. No wonder why, since her trainer disappeared ad she’d been tied up somewhere far from him.   
Red’s frown deepened, morphing into a scowl tainted with the same fear: where the hell was Green?  
As the gear in his mind turned and worked, Red decided to thoroughly look around, but his feet didn’t want to move. His whole body was shutting down, drowned in the sudden realization Green might not come home.

«Are you crazy?! Red, you can’t just run into a place claimed by the police, it’s… Red? Are you…».  
Slowly approaching, Blue lowered her voice and walked around the trainer, who stopped in his tracks and was standing still at the center of the gym. «Red…?».  
Blue almost flinched back at what she saw. Tears streaked Red’s face, rolling down his cheeks from sorrowed eyes, and his whole body was shaking. The champion was losing his composure for the first time in years, and Blue didn’t know how to deal with it. Red never expressed that much emotion with her, his expression was mostly blank or dull whenever there were other people around, just the occasional smirk and the mysterious aura he gave off.

That was the legend, the stoic man who had once brought down Team Rocket on his own, who had rightfully stolen badge after badge until he took the title of champion on his shoulders from Green and disappeared in nothingness.   
Blue was seeing the human for the first time in years.  
Although, her istinctively backing up didn’t backfire completely. Feeling something crumple underneath her feet, Blue bent down and grabbed a piece of paper thrown on the floor, a folded sheet that went completely unnoticed by the police.   
They did examined only the entrance, though, so it was understandable.

Red took it from her to fast she shrieked, the paper almost tearing as Blue was holding it quite firmly as to examine it. No, it couldn’t be…  
On the paper, written in red, there was a brief and scrambled message:

_It’s time for payback, champion Red. Your fuckboy is going to be a good plaything for the ghosts._

When he realized the letters on the paper were not written in dark red ink, but in dried up blood, Red dropped the sheet and raised both hands to his mouth, bile and acid making their way up to his throat. Eevee complained upon being dropped, but then she sniffed the ground and hissed. Splotches of the same substance were splattered in tiny drops on the floor around were the message was, but Red was feeling too sick to wonder how the fuck the police didn’t notice that.   
As a matter of fact, he had to run away from Blue and find the nearest garbage bin to throw up, nothing coming up but bitter fluid. All of a sudden, Red was glad he didn’t eat anything, even if the taste in his mouth was far more than disgusting.

_Team Rocket_.

No one else would have wanted to hurt him that much, no one else would have targeted Green of all people. The lone thought of Green on the ground, at the mercy of some Rocket member, his skin sliced up to let him bleed on the paper… Red wanted to throw up again, but there was only acid in his stomach. Nothing came out, that time.

Then it hit him.  
Completely deaf to the footsteps approaching behind him, too heavy to be Blue’s, Red froze in place.   
_A good plaything for the ghosts.  
_Face drained of its color, Red raised his gaze in the void as memories flooded him.

Green in the Pokemon Tower of Lavender Town, kneeling down in front of his Raticate’s grave, crying for his dead Pokemon but shaking so hard his distress was visible from a distance.   
When Red tried to approach, Green only told him to scram, but his voice wasn’t as determined and tainting as it normally was. The teen could hear the trembling in it, the hesitation between each word.  
All around the small city there were voices telling legends, telling of the haunted tower that loomed over their heads, filled with countless spirits of restless and malicious Pokemon. Red didn’t care at the time, being a young boy with no interest nor fear in ghosts, and only went there because he had to.   
Green was there because it was his fault. Green was there because he had to bury his Raticate after Red unintentionally killed it.   
And Red, at his side despite being told to go away, despite standing a few feet away, could see Green was _scared_ out of his mind of that place, and could _see_ the ghosts were real. Not Ghost-type Pokemon, but legit, ethereal figures hovering around and fleeing from daylight.

Green was terrified of ghosts and tight spaces. He was extremely claustrophobic, to the point he always refused to take the elevator or entering any kind of small room with no windows. And that phobia nurtured a not-so-strong but still there fear of the dark, as with tight spaces normally it comes darkness.  
Because of that, he never slept in complete darkness if Red wasn’t with him, and still tended to be tremendously clingy.   
He never told his at-the-time boyfriend out loud, but Red figured as much when, coming home late after a long training session, he’d found Green asleep in their room with a nightlight on.

Agitated and now holding the slip of paper with the threatening message on it, Blue glanced at the officers surrounding them. They could be just so much sympathetic of the situation, but she was seeing bits of annoyance on their faces.   
Certainly not wanting to bail his brother’s husband out of jail, Blue breathed in and took a cautious step forward: «Red…? Come on, we have to leave», she said, her voice reduced to a whisper.  
His reaction had been so sudden and unexpected, she got completely lost. Blue was feeling physically sick about her brother’s disappearance, but not to that degree, not to the point of throwing up. What was that all about, and why Red was so stiff all of a sudden?  
It was like approaching a wild Pokemon she never heard about. She was about to look down on the paper and read it, when a scream made her flinch back.

«They brought him to the tower!».

Out of the blue, Red stood up and _shouted_.  
His throat hurt, he wasn’t used to raise his voice that much, much less using it. He wasn’t aware of his surroundings anymore. Not aware of Blue, despite having heard her shocked gasp. Not aware of three police officers still uncertain of what to do. He banged his foot on the ground, hard enough for it to sting in his bones, and then spun around so quickly his vision danced.

Red didn’t let that stop him.

He glanced at Blue, spared a look at the officers, and stormed out as fast as he could, grabbing all of Green’s Pokeball as he left the gym. The message had also a hour written on it.   
Green had been in the Pokemon Tower for six hours.

Red called out Charizard and climbed on his back, holding onto him for dear life and shielding Pikachu in between their bodies as the Pokemon took off. Lavender Town was more than forty minutes away, as the Murkrow flies.   
Behind him, he could barely make up Blue’s voice as she yelled his name, but he didn’t turn tail. He ordered Charizard to fly faster, and all noises got blocked up by the Pokemon’s wings slicing through the air.

He just hoped it wasn’t too late to save him.

^^^

«Miss? We need that piece of paper you’re holding, it’s a clue for the investigation».

Blue side-eyed the officer talking to her and handed him the paper, barely refraining herself from snapping a remark to the man. So much for their investigation, if Red had already took off after figuring out Green was in the…  
Oh.   
Oh no.

Her legs gave out unexpectedly, Blue fell with her knees on the asphalt without even flinching at the pain that shot through her body.   
She purposely ignored the officer’s startled reaction at her side, and gripped her head between both hands as realization came crashing upon.   
Lavender Town.  
The Pokemon Tower.  
The haunted tower that killed almost everyone who got locked up in it during the night.

«Miss, do you need medical assistance? What’s the problem?».

She bit the harsh reply before it flew in his face.   
Red was smart, much more than those idiots surrounding her still doing _nothing_ even though they got a fucking piece of knowledge about Green. He figured it out and rushed away before letting it sink in. And he seemed _terrified_ by his discovery.  
«What the fuck are you still doing here?!», Blue finally barked, her voice very similar to a Pokemon’s battle cry as to how upset it was. «Red told you where he is, why aren’t you going after him?!».

He didn’t reply, just shot her a condescending look before handing the slip of paper to another officer. Blue saw red.   
Was that man thinking she was just overreacting?  
Outraged, Blue stood up and forced her legs to stop shaking, facing the officer with a frown so deep it actually hurt: «My brother is in a fucking haunted tower, and you’re standing here doing jackshit!», she yelled again, loud enough to wake up the entire block.   
Her hands were trembling with rage, itching for the urge to punch that patronizing expression and wipe it away from the man’s face.

«Haunted tower? I believe that, even if you brother is in the Pokemon Tower of Lavender Town, he’s perfectly haunting-free. I suggest you go back home and leave this to the police, miss. We’ll keep you updated on our progress, obviously.  
And I also suggest you teach your friend a lesson. He might be the champion, but law also applies to him. He has to consider himself lucky we didn’t arrest him already».

Hadn’t it been for Eevee whining at her feet, Blue might have thrown that punch.  
Livid, still shaking with fury and worry alike, the woman swept up Eevee in her arms and threw a last murderous glance at the officer, before turning around and leaving.   
She wanted to take a Pidgeot and fly over to Lavender Town, but Red needed somewhere in the city and he’d also taken Green’s Pidgeot before going.

So, cuddling Eevee to soothe both the Pokemon and herself, she walked towards the Pokemon Center not far from the gym, her apartment way too far from it.  
She still had no idea what happened, and who made it happen, since she hadn’t read the message, but Blue hoped with all her heart Red was going to be in time.

^^^

It was dark.  
Too dark, in fact.   
When Green opened his eyes, groaning at the throbbing pain in the back of his head, he couldn’t see anything. Not even a sliver of light, a sparkle, something.  
The room was engulfed in pitch black, as if his eyes were plainly blind. He shut them close again, his heart pounding against his chest, his entire body shivering not for the cold but for the feeling of intense dread that came upon him, trapped him.

Trapped.   
That’s the key word.   
They had locked him up somewhere, the Rocket fuckers, but Green wasn’t in the correct state of mind to try and understand where he was.   
Still on the floor, his legs too weak to support him, he crawled around in search of something, _anything_ that could tell him where he was and how he could escape, as his eyes slowly started to get used to the dark. He could control his fear, it was just darkness, no big deal right?  
Red used to be in darkness for three years, on the damn mountain, he could endure a couple hours no problem.

Or so he thought, until his back came in contact with a hard, cold surface. It wasn’t the wall, that Green understood, but…  
He turned around, facing the object on his way, and raised his hands to the surface. He had to know what that was, it could be a hint, it could help him pinpoint his location.   
As soon as he did so, though, he had to refrain the scream creeping in the back of his throat.   
It was a slab of stone, with words and numbers carved into it, one name in a bigger scale than the others. A gravestone.

Green’s eyes widened as his breath became more erratic, his gulps of air more shallow, and he scrambled away from the gravestone until he hit a wall, a wall that was _too close_ for his own liking. He slumped against it, opening and closing his fists in a weak attempt of calming his nerves, looking around in blindness so fast his head started spinning.   
He forced his body to move, once again, inch by inch, following the outline of the wall to try and understand how big the room was. No results.  
So he got up, his quivering legs not helping much, and crossed the room in a straight line. Only to wish he’d never done that.

The room was too small. Too cramped. Too dark. And filled with gravestones, as he could finally see something, shapes in the dark and nothing more.  
His heart was beating too fast, pounding too hard against his chest, Green was sure it could break his ribcage and jump out.   
He was locked in the last floor of the Pokemon Tower.

Before he could stop it, an anguished scream made his way out through his throat, tears filled up his eyes and streaked his cheeks. Green fell to the ground, tried to make himself as small as possible, hugged his body tight as he desperately drew in quick breaths.   
His vision started to blurry, lungs struggling to receive and hold in air.   
He wasn’t going to have a panic attack in that place, he _couldn’t _have a breakdown in there. He tried, he made an effort to calm himself up, he called out things he could see, smell, feel, he thought about Red and Blue, and his Pokemon, but he only made it worse.

They didn’t even know he was there.   
No one knew, aside from Team Rocket, and surely they weren’t going to tell anyone about it.   
He didn’t even have his Pokemon with him.

It was a dripping sound that brought him back to reality, faint and sporadic, but so so loud in the still silence of the room.  
Green didn’t want to open his eyes again, didn’t want to face a blurred out darkness in that insufferable prison, but as the initial shock rubbed off he sensed pain in his right arm. When his eyelids fluttered up, Green’s gaze was already fixated on the bleeding wound on his forearm, a small but deep cut that was spilling tiny drops of blood on the dusty floor.

He didn’t remember getting injured, no wood shard had hit him when Team Rocket barged into his gym, but he couldn’t think about it that much.  
Not after seeing a pair of eyes looking at him from the corner of the room. Glowing, mean-looking eyes that by no means belonged to a live Pokemon. In a matter of seconds, eyes flickered everywhere all around the man, coming through the walls, through the floor, appearing out of thin air.   
Green moved away and backed up again until his back met cold stone, the same gravestone he’d bumped into before, and couldn’t stop the shaking that engulfed his whole body.

He’d been so frozen in fear upon noticing he was locked in a dark and small room his minds didn’t register the worst part of the Pokemon Tower.   
The haunting.   
Green bent both legs to his chest and made his body as small as possible, silently praying for something, anything to happen that could pry him away from that situation. His pleas were for the three Birds, for Ho-Oh, for Lugia, for the Beasts, for Arceus himself. For any everloving divine creature in existence, rather.   
But nobody came.

Nobody, except from ghosts.   
They swarmed the room in a matter of minutes, slow but inexorable, floating in mid-air in their state of glimmering or shadowy figures. Some of them, the creepiest, were lumps of what seemed like black smoke, maybe Pokemon that died in a fire, or ghosts so old and tired as to become formless. They drifted around, lowering the temperature with their very presence, encircling Green as they came closer and closer.  
Green shivered, still too afraid to look up, as cold seeped into his clothes and chilled his body to the bone.  
It was unnatural, wrong, it was icy hands and claws that gripped at his very soul and wanted to tear it away from his body.

And then they came.

The voices.  
Screams coming from the deepest pit of his memory, anguished cries making their way into his mind from outside, ripping at his mind and ears as he finally moved and covered them with his hands. It was painful, distressing, so inconceivably wicked.   
Green heard the familiar voice of Red’s mother, yelling and crying as she asked him over and over where her son was, he saw etched behind his eyes her figure slumped on the ground as tears rolled down her face. It was the day Green made up his mind and told her Red disappeared, at the time he was still presumed dead.   
Her grief-sicken screams were burned into Green’s memory, seared into it, but he tried to keep himself together.   
It wasn’t happening.   
It was just a memory, even if a heartbreaking one. Red was back, Red reunited with his mother.   
Red wasn’t on that mountain anymore, he was alive, he was his husband. They got together, they got married, celebrated by every friends they had.

Right?

Another scream pierced his ears, and he didn’t recognize it. It was another woman, shrieking and crying, desperately calling for help as fire engulfed her, as flames ate her flesh and consumed her body.   
Green pressed his hands on his ears more, as if to block the sound, but it wasn’t coming from outside, it was inside his mind, inside his very being.  
He didn’t know that woman, wasn’t able to see her face. It was black, blurred, hidden away, but the scorching heat of the fire was eating alive him as well. He wasn’t cold anymore, he started sweating and quivering, the tower was burning!

He tried to get up, to crawl away, to do _something_, but he was frozen in place.   
He was made of stone. He was a bronze statue melting away as its beauty was being corrupted and twisted into creating weapons and death.

And then it changed.   
The voice became deeper, stronger, until Green recognized Red in it.   
He was crying, agonizing over his Pokemon’s lifeless bodies, a pale and skeletrical figure kneeling on freezing snow. His frail body was clad in shredded clothes, torn and tattered and showing frostbitten skin. Green was shivering again, goosebumps crawling all over his skin, as tears fell down from Red’s fiery eyes.

He was surrounded by corpses. A wilted Venusaur with brown leaves and a dead flower on his back, a twisted Blastoise whose cannons had been tore away from his shell, a pale Charizard without any flames on his body, his tail limp and shut down.   
Snorlax lay perfectly still, no breath moving his chest up and down, so skinny it was an entire different Pokemon as he rotted away.   
And Pikachu… Pikachu was the main reason why Red was screaming, his quiet voice too much to handle all at once for Green, who stood up and tried to run away from it, run away from the image in his eyes.   
He opened them, but the scene was still there, still playing. Pikachu was still laying dead on red snow, blood coming out of his body from cuts and bites, drenching Red’s hands and clothes more than sickly yellow fur.

It wasn’t real, they were alive, Green had petted Pikachu on the head only that morning!   
It wasn’t real!  
It!  
Wasn’t!  
Real!

_«IT’S NOT REAL!»_.

Green screamed with his own voice, stumbled on a gravestone, kept running and tripped again. He fell, hard, on cold tiles, on cold snow, surrounded by graves and ghosts and Red’s dead friends.   
He blocked his fall on instinct, lowering his hands just in time to avoid hitting his face, but he didn’t know where he was.  
His left wrist snapped, pain bolting up his arm, unnoticed and lost and ignored.  
Was he on Mt. Silver or locked away in Lavender Town?  
What was he stumbling upon, gravestones or stones covered in ice?

It was black, and then white, and then black again, a horrible and hypnotic spiral of madness that went on and on for ages, until Green couldn’t hear his own voice anymore and claws scratched at his throat, chocked him and made his chest ache.

He was back at Pallet Town, now, flying over houses and streets, but so so cold, until his vision shifted and a coffin lid closed above him.   
He clawed at it, his nails scraping wood and chipping paint, breaking and bleeding over his face, his voice mute and unable to scream, teeth rotten and mouth stitched close, failing to let them know he was _still alive_ in there. 

And then the scene changed again, and he was staring at a coffin now, opened and filled with flowers. Green opened his mouth in a soundless cry upon seeing Red’s lifeless body laying in it, arms crossed on his chest and a pained expression twisting his features. His skin started decomposing, putrefied and black and showing his skull as maggots took over and the lid was closed shut on him.   
He fell to his knees and watched as the coffin was lowered down, and a moment after he was the one covering it with dirt, shoveling it in the hole and wanting to jump down with his lover.

No…  
No, Red was alive! He wasn’t dead, he didn’t freeze to death on the mountain! He wasn’t decaying alone and locked away underground!

Green fell again, not remembering when he got up, a hand clutching his chest as stabbing pain shot through it, his head hitting the ground. Pictures flew over his mind, playing like an old movie, static and feverishly fast, dark and bright, spiraling around him and laying down at his feet.   
He wanted to call for help, but he was fading away.   
Hid body was withering, turning to dust, melting and changing, as the pain on his heart only grew worse and worse until he passed out.

^^^

Charizard landed at the outskirt of Lavender Town, just far enough from the tower to avoid being spotted by any Rocket members who could stand guard. The Pokemon was tired, flying the entire distance between Pallet Town and Lavender Town in such a short time span tired him out, so Red returned Charizard to his Pokeball and rushed to the tower.   
The entire city was asleep, apparently ignorant of what happened, but Red didn’t lose time by alerting officers or a Pokemon Center. They were useless enough at is was. Instead, he made a run for it and hid in the bushes as soon as he approached the cemetery.

Pikachu, perched on his shoulder, looked around and waved his tail, impatient. Red wasn’t seeing anyone, not even a Pokemon, aside from the occasional translucent ghost scanning the area.   
Because yes, the place _was_ haunted.   
Sure, Ghost-type Pokemon roamed graveyard and tower, but they weren’t the only inhabitants. It was the main reason why Red and Green has insisted so much about closing the tower at night. As for now, the tower was only open during full daylight, from noon to 4 pm, and only on sunny days.   
Otherwise, all the ghosts would start floating around causing distress and painful experiences in any person they wanted.   
There was the occasional kind one, like the Marowak near the last floor or maybe Green’s Raticate, but most of the others were mean, cruel, and only aimed to bring madness and death. They wanted to catch them all, in a way.

They were dangerously clever, able to slip fake memories and pictures in the mind of an unfortunate bystander, and by no mean they knew what mercy was.  
Red knew, even though the majority of the events had been hidden from general knowledge, how many people died in the tower because of them. He knew how many people entered the tower as sane and well beings, only to leave it as pale and stiff corpses.   
Being aware of the fact Green could very well follow the same fate was making Red even more sick that he already was.

Once totally confident no Team Rocket member was around, Red left his hiding place and slowly made his way through the cemetery. He wanted to make a run for it, rush his feet and dash in between gravestones until his legs gave out, but startling the ghosts was the worst idea ever.   
The last thing Red needed was being unable to help Green because he found himself in the same situation.

So, he broke in the tower and entered the building as quietly as possible, his footsteps echoing in empty and dark rooms. Red was about to order Pikachu to use Flash, but catching a glimpse of foggy ghosts roaming around he decided against it. Better save it as an emergency measure, he concluded.   
The first floors were easy to go around in, big open chambers littered with gravestones but housing mostly grieving ghosts, spine-shilling translucent shapes crying and moaning in distress and loss. Their ethereal forms emanated sorrow and bitterness, raw feelings and energy capable of making even the toughest of people spill anguished tears.   
Red wasn’t spared from it, as drops escaped his eyes and veiled them with watery memories, but he gritted his teeth and went straight for the stairs one, two, three times without faltering.

On the third floor his resolution started flickering. He’d never been in the tower outside daytime, and nothing could have prepared him for the show in front of his eyes.   
The ghosts were less ethereal, pale forms floating around their gravestones, some wailing, some emitting rasping sounds that wanted to imitated a sick and twisted laughter. They were the ones who turned around and stared Red down, bloodshot eyes glowing in a darkness barely lit from silver moonlight.   
Screams started flooding his ears, faint and low but disturbing nonetheless, and Red shivered as sinister thoughts crossed his mind.   
If it wasn’t for Pikachu on his side, hissing at the ghost with his yellow fur spiked up as a sign of warning, Red would have backed up immediately and never come back.

And Green was alone, _completely alone_, locked where the ghosts were meaner and the air thinner.

The lone thought made Red straighten his spine and cross the room without looking around, his gaze fixated on the door leading to yet another set of creaking stairs.   
Distorted images of people and Pokemon crying for help, burning and drowning, reaching out to grab his hand, strangle him, trap him. None of that bothered Red in the moment, they were nothing but an obstacle blocking his way.

Fourth floor, his eyes were blinded by darkness and flashes of light, open or close there was no difference. His eyelids were heavy, as flickering ghosts surrounding him sang their woe, misery seeping through clothes, skin and bones, mixing with blood and thickening it.  
Red started panting, if for the effort of keep running up the stairs or because his breath was being stolen away by vengeful spirits he didn’t know, but he kept going and going.  
Fields of burned grass crunched under his feet and merged with freezing stone, and then cold white snow, until reality stopped existing and everything was nothing but a cluttered dream filled with heartache and fear and lost hopes.

Climbing up to the very top of the tower, Red was enclosed in a cage of rusty iron bars, his feet soaked in blood, at his side a rampant Arcanine slashing and biting and clawing at everyone who tried to fend him off, to trap him and train him like a useless beast made only for combat.   
The scene changed and he was underwater, drowning as a Blastoise held him down, his lungs begging for air as he opened his lips and water flooded his chest, eyes watching and mouths laughing. Red gasped for air, his fingers clawing at his throat, but he didn’t stop his footing and climbed more and more.

The door he fumbled with, maybe calling Green’s name, maybe incoherently screaming at the top of his lungs, melted under his hands and pooled at his feet like mercury, untouchable but still solid where his fingers were picking the lock.   
It was the turn of Pidgeot, whose beautiful fluffy feathers were gone, plucked off one by one until the bird remained naked and covered in blood, his wings flapping uselessly in a vain attempt to take fly. The Pokemon had something between his claws, a sliced cluster of brown fur drenched in red and crying shrilling tears.

Green’s voice shrieked in the distance, his headless body wandering around as his head stared at Red’s very soul, eyes lifeless and mouth open in a desperate call for help.   
Red cried, if with his voice or with his tears he didn’t know, and the door finally broke open, the heavy metal and wood frame slamming against the wall with a fracturing bang.

«Pikachu, use Flash!», he yelled at his furry companion, shielding his eyes as the little mouse flooded the entire room with bright white light, so intense every ghost screeched and fled.   
Pikachu’s body was trembling for the effort of keeping his light on, red cheeks sparkling with tiny lightning, but for once Red didn’t have eyes for his best friend.  
Because laying on the ground, one hand clutching at his chest and face streaked with dried tears, there was Green.

^^^

Green was woken up by the annoying beeping sound entering directly his left ear, regular and low but irritating enough to disturb his sleep.   
He had to blink a couple times before his eyes got adjusted to the brightness of the room, every single piece of furniture an antiseptic shade of white or silvery grey. Even the sheets he was covered with where pure white, and the pillow under his head was heavenly soft and fluffy.   
Then reality hit him, and Green tried to seat up, only to be stopped by a pair of strong but gentle arms holding him down.

«Don’t, you’re still recovering», Red said, his voice trembling in relief as hazel eyes wandered on his face, open and alive and _there_.   
He accompanied him down with one hand and fluffed his pillow with the other, never breaking eye contact now that he’s gotten him back. When he found him, Green was barely alive and bleeding from various open wounds, his breathing erratic and his heart on the verge of failing.   
It had been nerve-wrecking, calling for help as soon as he exited the cemetery with an unconscious Green held in his arms, and subsequently waiting for the doctors to examine him and make a diagnosis of what happened to him.   
The verdict was a severe panic attack that resulted in Green passing out, after triggering various physical reactions included a mild heart attack. The doctors had been unbelievably confused as to why a panic attack affected the heart, and insisted on taking some emergency tests, but Red knew better. Not a heart attack, but a side effect caused by the ghosts.   
He’d heard it happen before, and everyone dismissed it as people already having cardiovascular disorders before entering the tower.

He also had a broken wrist, a deep cut on his forehead and various other cuts and scratches all over his body. Green needed only a couple stitched and he wasn’t concussed, but his body was still weak and his mind had been on the verge of insanity for hours. Red wasn’t going to let him move anytime soon.

«How did you…», Green trailed off, wincing as sharp pain crossed his forehead. An IV tube was dripping something into his veins, the needle deep beneath his skin, but it surely was doing nothing against a throbbing headache.  
The last thing he remembered was waking up in the tower and being ambushed by ghosts. Ghosts… «Red, what the hell happened to me?!», he almost yelled at him, hands shaking at the memory, cold sweat covering his body in shivers and ice. His voice cracked as tears veiled his eyes, frustration and fear merged together in a jumbled mess of emotions.   
He wanted to hide his face, to shield himself from the horrors he witnessed and lived, but Red’s hands were soon on his, soothingly stroking palm and back and careful not to bend his bandaged wrist.   
A comforting gesture Green lost himself in.

That’s right.   
He wasn’t there anymore. He wasn’t in a cramped room filled with gravestones and swarmed with ghosts, alone and scared. He was safe, bandaged and monitored in a hospital room, with Red at his side and with shining sunlight coming from outside.   
Unless…  
«Wait, what about…».

«Team Rocket? Don’t worry, right after I brought you to the hospital the authorities decided I wasn’t being an idiot and tracked down the group that locked you up. They arrested all of them and believe me, none of them is leaving jail anytime soon», he answered, before Green could finish his question.   
It was obvious, he was worried something similar could happen again to him, or worse, to his sister. But that eventuality was out of the picture, now.   
«They were charged for kidnapping, attempted murder and resisting arrest. Quick trial, no one wanted to defend them and they refused a lawyer. I would have really wanted to be there, just to see their kickable asses being dragged away by officers», he added, explaining with a little more detail. He wasn’t going to tell Green the whole story while in a hospital room, but it was worth the hopeful smile that crept on his face.

Comforted, even if just a little bit, Green finally relaxed and settled down with his back on the soft pillow: «I’m happy to hear that. And… I’m sorry. You had to be worried», he apologized with a sigh.  
If only he would have had quicker reflexes… his Pokemon were right there, he could have called one out before Team Rocket barged into his gym and all of that would have been avoided.   
And speaking of his Pokemon, Green frowned and looked around, no Pokeball in sight: «Ehm, Red…? Where are my Pokemon? They’re fine, right?».

Red nodded, but as soon as he opened his mouth to speak a nurse opened the door and came into the room, so he closed it shut. After his outburst with Green’s sister and the officers, Red had fallen back into his usual silence if anyone other than his husband was around.   
The latter shot him an understanding look and then Red was shooed away by the nurse, with the agreement he would return after Green’s conditions and parameters had been checked.   
Smiling, Red squeezed Green’s hand one more time and got up from the uncomfortable chair, his eyes promising he would be back.   
And he _was_ going to be back.

After all there was no way he wasn’t going to fall back into his arms. 

**Author's Note:**

> Why do I always put my favorite characters through so much shit? I sure as hell don't know.   
Maybe I'll do a companion fic for this, maybe I'll start writing more about Pokemon, who knows. For now, I'm still to involved with way too may Yu-Gi-Oh! stuff, so you'll have to make do. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, if you enjoyed please leave kudos or review, they help this dumb writer a lot!  
See you in the next!


End file.
